DevsMan84 Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 10 minutes ago, MadDog2020 said: Gallant for sure is making a huge difference. He should be in the Jack Adams conversation. They also lap us in talent though. Fox and Trouba are better than anyone on D that we have not named Hamilton, and Panarin is better than any of our forwards. True, but the coaching makes the biggest difference. They were at best a playoff bubble team last year with largely the same players. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadDog2020 Posted February 8, 2022 Author Share Posted February 8, 2022 26 minutes ago, DevsMan84 said: True, but the coaching makes the biggest difference. They were at best a playoff bubble team last year with largely the same players. Coaching definitely matters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wensink Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 Coaching matters but goal tending is MORE important. See Shesterkin, I believe he's 80% of the reason they are where they are. (+Few long term injuries to their core too) We'd be in a wild card slot with a goalie like that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfitz804 Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 10 minutes ago, John Wensink said: Coaching matters but goal tending is MORE important. See Shesterkin, I believe he's 80% of the reason they are where they are. (+Few long term injuries to their core too) We'd be in a wild card slot with a goalie like that. Its possible, but you also have to, I don't know, play defense and not constantly have star players (and non-star players) completely uncovered in the slot. I know Blackwood is the scapegoat du jour but we have iced 6 different goalies this season with virtually the same results every time. We see it every single game, the goalie (whoever it is) gets hung out to dry a few times and we don't have the offense to fight back. Which is weird, because a few weeks (months?) ago we WERE fighting back in games, now not so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJDevils1214 Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 2 hours ago, mfitz804 said: Its possible, but you also have to, I don't know, play defense and not constantly have star players (and non-star players) completely uncovered in the slot. I know Blackwood is the scapegoat du jour but we have iced 6 different goalies this season with virtually the same results every time. We see it every single game, the goalie (whoever it is) gets hung out to dry a few times and we don't have the offense to fight back. Which is weird, because a few weeks (months?) ago we WERE fighting back in games, now not so much. The message in the locker room probably starts to fall on deaf ears after the 30th time of trying to come back late in the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titans04 Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 4 hours ago, MadDog2020 said: Gallant for sure is making a huge difference. He should be in the Jack Adams conversation. They also lap us in talent though. Fox and Trouba are better than anyone on D that we have not named Hamilton, and Panarin is better than any of our forwards. Yeah my thought there is along the same point, it's about the talent on the roster especially the real high end vet talent. Without it it you're spinning your wheels. Mika and Kreider leading the league in goals, studs. If the true belief is the answers are in the room and we are to trust the process (insinuating they're on some kind of rightful path)we'll be in the sme position for years to come which to me is shameful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titans04 Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 4 hours ago, DevsMan84 said: True, but the coaching makes the biggest difference. They were at best a playoff bubble team last year with largely the same players. They had picked a college guy who had no track record at this level. Comparing him to a guy with 750+ wins is a stretch. So is comparing our roster to theirs and expecting similar results regardless of who the coach is. We have one vet with talent and he's missed how many games with a broken jaw now? and no goalie, the list goes on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevsMan84 Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 28 minutes ago, titans04 said: They had picked a college guy who had no track record at this level. Comparing him to a guy with 750+ wins is a stretch. So is comparing our roster to theirs and expecting similar results regardless of who the coach is. We have one vet with talent and he's missed how many games with a broken jaw now? and no goalie, the list goes on. The game passed Ruff by a long time ago. Rangers fans couldn't wait to unload him and their D got better almost immediately after he left (given Fox wasn't there but Trouba was). Hell, Ruff wasn't even the Devils first choice but he was the affordable option so they went with him. In short, I am not going to give Ruff some special reverence because of his track record of winning games back in 2001. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanMac16 Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 19 hours ago, slasher72 said: What keeps franchises in the basement, in addition to bad coaching, is terrible drafting and the devils have been doing both for over 10 years. When you whiff on Hischier considering the talent in that draft and whiff bigtime on Zacha considering the talent in that draft, coupled with bad draft picks taken after the first round, coupled with signed free agents who dont produce, you set your franchise back years and it's very hard to overcome that. I know I'm late to this but it makes me sick to see we took Zacha with Timo Meier available, I understand maybe at the time Zacha looked like the better choice and you could argue that Timo may not have developed well over here (another thing we screw up well) but seeing the player Zacha is today compared to Timo is just insane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek21 Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 On 2/8/2022 at 11:04 AM, John Wensink said: Coaching matters but goal tending is MORE important. See Shesterkin, I believe he's 80% of the reason they are where they are. (+Few long term injuries to their core too) We'd be in a wild card slot with a goalie like that. Without Igor, they'd be a bubble team. He makes so many huge saves. MVP caliber stuff. They lucked out. He also is aggressive moving the puck. That helps out the defense. The team is very top heavy. I think if they win a round, that would be good. They have to add 2 forwards. Agree on the coach. Gallant doesn't dwell on the negatives. But he will call it out if he doesn't like their game. You want to have structure and accountability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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